Sunday, November 29, 2015

Im sitting in the bunkie this morning wondering how I want to write this post. Ironically, when I opened my pages program, there was still a copy of the last post I wrote. I had emphatically stated “First let me tell you nothing is wrong, no one is sick, and nothing is forcing us to take this route.” And, it was true, then, it’s not now.

Last year, my strong healthy husband had some indigestion and tightness in his chest, the result was that he had to have two stents to correct two 90% blockages in his heart. No high cholesterol, no high blood pressure, he’s not over weight and that crappy smoking habit he once had is long gone. It seemed the cardiac care team were surprised that this even happened.

After the surgery, we trotted off to the Bahamas, Marc built the bunkie, spent the summer working full time. Everything seemed good except there was still some tightness, come on this guy was carrying 5/8” sheets of press wood up ladders.

Thank goodness for persistent friends, and a cardiologist sailing friend, that hooked Marc up with a surgeon. So last week in Marc goes for an angiogram. When they wheel him out about 45 minutes later, I am excited thinking thats fast, it must have gone well. No, One of the stents put in last year is blocking and there are three new blockages. It seems that this is genetic, or so they surmise.

When given a choice Marc opts to wait a couple weeks for the triple bypass surgery, I think to wrap his head around it, I text my oldest friends to wallow in my pitty pot, and we run to camp to think and read and reflect.

Like I said before everything happens for a reason and now we know what our reason to stay was.

I know that bypass surgery is very common place these days, he is young, healthy and there is virtually little risk (10%) but, hey this is my best friend, any risk is just to much.

So in the next couple weeks Marc is going to have his surgery, he’s going to mend and become better than before. Fingers crossed, we will be sailing DevOcean this time next year, enjoying fair winds and following seas, blogging about sailing and wondering why we were so worried.

Friday, September 25, 2015

Many of our urban dwelling southern friends have been questioning, just exactly what we are building? What is a bunkie, while our rural, northern friends have no problem understanding our building plans. During a long drive after we had pondered the meaning of life, discused our children, a short conversation about money or the lack thereof we decided to look up the definition of Bunkie. Definitions of bunkie seemed to be varied from, a man who shares living space with another man in a prison cell described in the urban dictionary in a way that both my mother or pastor wouldn’t want me to repeat, to always polite Websters definition “The bunkie”, meant to serve as a guesthouse. Most importantly, we learned it wasn’t a valid scrabble word so we decided to define bunkie ourselves from different viewpoints .

Bunkie [buhng-kee] noun, slang

Olive:

Treehouse [tre haus] Noun

a small house built in the branches of a tree for children to play in.

a structure or shelter in which people or animals are housed

Examples for tree house: “Oh grandpa, I’m so lucky you built me a tree house.”

According to Wikipedia tree house are usually built for leisure, but sometimes are built for protection against wild scavenging animals. Marc: I feel better about storing the beer now.

Marc:

Building project [bildiNG pre jekt] Verb

Never ending building project, with an abundance of chores and maintenance to occupy his time upon completion much like owning a sail boat a never ending pit that you keep throwing money into.

Examples for building project: After you finish the roofing project we could start on the wiring project, insulation project, water tower project, flooring project…

Friends:

1. Accident [aksedent] noun

An unfortunate incident that happens unexpectedly and unintentionally, typically resulting in damage or injury

Example for accident:

2. Retreat [ree treat] noun

A quiet, secluded place one can rest and relax, a place to get away from it all.

Examples for retreat: Lets retreat to the Faubert’s for some rest and relaxation Note: unless you want to help with the never ending building project; see waiver attached to friend definition #1 accident

Kids & Cousins :

Adventure Camp

adˈven(t)SHər, kamp noun

tourism involving activities that are physically challenging

a type of niche visiting involving exploration to remote areas, where the you should expect the unexpected.

Linda

Home [hom] Noun,

relating to a home of a family, place of origin, a base of operation, a place where someone flourishes as a member of a family. May poses biological DNA, but not necessary. I am at completely at home, and, I am wrapped in love XOXO

Is it only me that gets completely excited over getting a stove? When we bought our first sailboat Martiny it had, what I thought was a questionable propane stove that I was sure was going to burn off my eyebrows and blow up the salon. Much to my delight, I spent countless hours experimenting with that stove and I hope offered up some pretty tasty meals to family and friends so when Marc came home with this rust bucket for the new bunky I was more than just a little skeptical but as always optimistic.

Being on a budget and living in my idea of heaven who was I to complain, instead I spent a few hours with my friends google and pintrest searching for cleaning and refurbishing advice. To be really honest, I wanted to paint the stove teal green, but buying and shipping the paint was more money than we paid for the $100 stove.

She’s pretty tiny but so is the bunky, extremely dirty, but I know how to clean and old and rusty, ah well I can relate to old and rusty. We honestly didn’t even know if she would work so that was our first goal. As soon as we hooked up some propane she sprang to life like a champ and much to our surprise had working pilot lights and It passed its leaky soapy test.

Now it was my turn to go into action. I scrubbed away grease and then the build up of what I like to imagine were happy family meals, sanded down her rusty age spots, taped her delicate areas and applied many new coats of paint. I think she turned out pretty good.

My refurbished stove is now working away in her new spot, last week I canned a bushel of farm fresh tomatoes, I picked up on a quick trip south, Olive and I baked cupcakes with sprinkles of course, I used her to make our first night sit down meal and the under the oven broiler makes perfect toast if I don’t forget to watch it. Yup I’m pretty excited about my new stove.

Saturday, August 8, 2015

When DevOcean was safely tucked away in Jacksonville Florida this spring and Marc and I were enjoying the drive home, we spent countless hours planning the building of the bunkie, developing time lines, estimating costs. These exercises whiled away the hours and built excitement for our project. Silly me, I had us built, beautiful and dreaming of hours spent playing with Olive in the water, cold beer on hot afternoons, bonfires and s’mores.

Reminiscent of the planning for our retreat to the boat, we quickly learned that we were just as optimistic about the bunkie as we were about moving to the boat. We are definitely, way off the mark in money and in time.

As always Marc being the more realistic of the two of us, he just wanted to get the shell built. Geesh this is not a house, its just a bunkie, two rooms; one up, one down. 417 square feet give or take. We had hoped for the shell to be completed and us moved in to a basic space with in one month, but here it is two months later and with work (Whats with that? My retired husband working!) and family commitments the roof is not completed and there are still many basics to do. Marc calls the bunkie rough.

As for me, I of course spent hours pondering colours, dreaming of quaint corners, scouring small living blogs. Our entire living space is slightly bigger, 80 square feet, than the family room in the home we sold to go sailing. Alas, my tiny kitchen has 2 x 4 cupboards, any kind of beautification that I thought was to happen will wait until next year, maybe…(the reason for my husband working) I call the bunkie rustic.

So what do I want you to get from this blog? We are happy. Plain and simple. Everyday we are happy to spend time here. We are still optimistically hoping to be in on the 20th of August but don’t hold your breath because Marc and I won’t.

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

You know when you were a kid on summer vacation and in the beginning you would nag your mother with “I’m bored” or “I have nothing to do” then just when things started to get really good and you wished summer could go on forever, it was over, it is sort of the way I’m feeling about the island of Eleuthera. Not that we haven’t had an excellent winter in the islands, we have loved every minuter, its that Marc and I had such a great time in Eleuthera and there are so many more lazy, crazy fun filled days we wish we could do here.

People just make a stop, and exploring Eleuthera with Ann of Crazy Lady has been well, crazy fun, and Joyce and Rick of Outrageous have been full of stories and knowledge that would make the Autobahn Society blush. We packed so much in and there are still things I wish we could have done.

Quick Eleuthera info: The Island is about 110 miles long, 2.5 miles wide at the widest point, and about 11,000 people live here. They call them selves the friendly Island. This was by far the most touristy Island we have explored in the Islands, but the stops we made were far from the money grabs you would have experienced at home.

O Dark Early Picking Up The Car Rental

We snorkelled Light House beach At East End Point

I Just loved this little crab

Crazy Lady

What A View

The Sailing Vessel Outrageous Rick & Joyce

Joyce

We visited Cape Eleuthera Institute which I have to say was pretty darn cool. Ok, from a lay person its this really neat research facility and school doing really interesting stuff and they are making new discoveries everyday while educating youth, ok forget it just go to …http://www.ceibahamas.org“The Cape Eleuthera Institute is a facility that promotes a connection between people and the environment.”

The young scientists and PHD students will stop their work and enthusiastically share there knowledge.

Found between 500 & 1700 feet deep

This young lady has identified three new species

The thing that interested me the most was that this large campus was eco-friendly and food sustainable.

Boiling Hole is one of the many Blue holes found in Eleuthera formed when the island limestone it connects to an offshore hole 1/4 mile through a network of underground caves as the name sugjuests the hole churns and bubbles with the oceans tides.